


Among the waves (near a storm)

by leadingrebel



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Returning to Kattegat, post-season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 06:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5323448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leadingrebel/pseuds/leadingrebel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lagertha stood up and walked to him, picking up her sword on her way there. She sat beside his laying form and looked for a rag to clean her weapon.</p><p>It felt as if her hands would not stay still unless she was doing something so she lowered her head and looked at the sword on her lap.</p><p>“I heard you.”</p><p>She knew he wouldn’t let it go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Among the waves (near a storm)

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Среди волн морских (приближался шторм)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6313570) by [faith_fatal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/faith_fatal/pseuds/faith_fatal)



> Tumblr prompt: ragnar/lagertha; post s3 + "I need you".

Lagertha could hear the waves, shaping the water and crushing against the ship.

The returning to Kattegat was being strangely long and it was driving her insane. She looked around — everyone was asleep, it was her turn in that night’s watch — and then glanced up, at the sky — dark and angry, black clouds covering everything, without a single star showing its light.

She could even feel the storm screaming in the distance. She could only hope they reached land before it clawed at them.

 _Gods_ , she thought, _Odin must be mad at Ragnar_.

But then, she just thought it was fair, to hate and resent Ragnar, and cast a storm in his name that would end them all. She could barely stood being in the same ship as him, with so little room to try to avoid him. She wouldn’t speak to him even if she had to sit right at his side.

(It helped that he couldn’t stand up and walk towards her, though).

“Lagertha” the whisper reached her as low as the stars’ light that night.

The anger inside her came back to life and flooded her veins at the sound of his voice. She just wanted to take her shield and hit him with it until she felt better.

She didn’t answer.

“Lagertha,” he insisted, tone a little more trembling, more urgent. “Talk to me. Please”

It was so unlike Ragnar, to ask for something so nicely, almost begging, that Lagertha bit her tongue and turned towards him.

Their eyes met the same moment a thunder resonated far away.

“Come here,” his eyes said the _please_ this time.

Lagertha stood up and walked to him, picking up her sword on her way there. She sat beside his laying form and looked for a rag to clean her weapon.

It felt as if her hands would not stay still unless she was doing something so she lowered her head and looked at the sword on her lap.

“I heard you.”

She _knew_ he wouldn’t let it go.

Lagertha tightened her grip on the blade, letting it cut her skin a little and tried for a change of topic.

“Why did you not tell me?”

She heard Ragnar’s hollow breath in the silence.

“I do not have an answer for that.”

She let out the air of her lungs in a snort.

“You’re a liar, Ragnar.”

“I am,” he said, calmed, sounding defeated. “But there are things I have not lied about in my entire life.”

Lagertha weren’t sure about that anymore.

“Were you lying?” he asked. “Were you only saying that in the presence of my dead body, of the Gods, to respect what we once had?”

Lagertha swallowed and kept her gaze focused on the sword, taking the rag and starting to clean the blood off it.

Ragnar continued to look at her for a while until he sighed and turned towards the sky.

“You haven’t changed,” he whispered, then paused. “I remember the first time I went away for days. We had only been living together for three months. And when I came back… it wasn’t on my feet.”

He shifted slightly to look at her and grimaced.

“I remember how you ran to me, how you yelled at the men carrying me to take me to our house. I remember you at my side the entire night, with my blood still staining your hands.”

Lagertha tightened her jaw and closed her eyes, bracing herself for his next words.

“I remember you talking to me, thinking I was unconscious,” he said “Saying the things you could not say to me while awake.”

_You cannot leave me, Ragnar._

_Do not leave me, please._

_I love you._

Lagertha’s grip returned to the blade, closing her fists until she felt the stinging pain of the cuts.

“But we were never ones that needed words, were we?” he murmured. “We have always been better with actions, hearing hidden meanings on meaningless words.”

 _Oh, we are_ , Lagertha thought, _we are_.

However, she put her hand on his face, feeling the heat on it. He leaned on it but she drew it back before she could even think of leaving it there.

_He’s delirious._

“Sleep, Ragnar” she whispered, biting the inside of her lower lip. “ _Eir_ will take care of you.”

 

* * *

 

Later, as the clouds moved — letting Ragnar see a lonely star on the darkness of the sky —, and the new man on watch kept tapping his fingers on the ship’s wood, he let his eyes travel back to Lagertha’s sleeping form.

She was so close he could move his hand to brush his fingers with hers. So he did.

He hadn’t felt her skin since so long he didn’t think he remembered it correctly, but when their fingers touched, it was as if they had been waiting for each other all this time.

“The Gods know my love for you, for our family, is the only thing I have always been sure of, the only thing keeping me on _Midgard_. I need it,” he whispered, only for her, even though he knew she could not hear him — which was why he was saying it, in the first place —.

“ **I need you** , Lagertha. I have always needed you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Also on [Tumblr](http://leadingrebel.tumblr.com/post/134225895946)


End file.
